The false idol of the “young professional” is worshipped by politicians, property developers, boutique entrepreneurs and practically anyone else in this city with a profit to make or an axe to grind. As a bearded, artsy, intellectual thirty-something with a “young family” and an allegedly professional job, I think we need to set the record straight.
Most of us are deeply in debt, an odious obligation incurred when we purchased the university credentials we thought would lead us to middle-class jobs. When we graduated, we found a labour market that looked like a war zone, blown to bits by the artillery of globalization, corporate greed and government cutbacks. Now most of us survive by cobbling together part-time, temporary, “precarious” work with no guarantees (or pensions). We find ourselves in an economy where everything costs more: education, transportation, housing, food and clothing, and where we earn less, enough to squeak by and keep up with student loan interest payments. We’ve been sold out.
Yet we find ourselves everywhere celebrated and fawned over, at least in the abstract. It seems that all peninsular residential property development is geared towards our airbrushed simulacrum: young means hip, suave, current and forward-looking; professional means safe, a good investment and unlikely to cause trouble. A young professional is the sort of person you want your own young professional children to marry. Yet we’re a fiction. In reality, young people in this province encounter one of the most desolate employment landscapes in living memory, and one of the worst in Canada.
Rather than worry about how we can attract and retain “young professionals” or the “creative class” by building snazzy condos or convention centres, we need grassroots economic and social development that actually gives people (young or not, professional or not) a feasible future.
Here are just a few ideas: We need rent control immediately to prevent the siphoning of wealth from the indebted young to the property-owning old. We need student loan elimination to release us from the perpetual bondage that prevents us from getting on with our lives. We need more public housing and cooperative housing, both to offer affordable shelter and to drive down overinflated real-estate prices. We need help creating small sustainable enterprises and worker cooperatives so we can build a grassroots economy. We don’t need more handouts to Prince Charming corporations or any more trickle-down economics bullshit.
We need our elders and their unions and associations to fight like hell to protect permanent, full time work in all sectors. We need to revive, value and reclaim the public sector (schools, libraries, hospitals, electrical utilities) so we can find meaningful work serving society. We need to increase the minimum wage or provide a guaranteed income to all people to ensure no one has to live below the poverty line. We also need a universal maximum wage. We need an end to unpaid internships and the expectation that one should have to work for free to gain the skills to compete for a “real” job.
We need universal childcare so we can afford to have kids. We need real participatory democracy (neighbourhood councils, participatory budgets), not periodic meaningless community “consultation” meetings aimed purely at expediting development boondoggles and gentrification projects. We need cheap or free public transit so we don’t have to buy cars, waste gas and trash the environment. We need older generations, who have wealth and the political clout, to stand up for us, to be in our corner.
You may say that all these initiatives will bankrupt the government. We need to ask why our government is so poor when, on paper at least, our society is richer than ever. You may think that the real solution is incentives for big business to stimulate the economy, but when has that ever worked in this province or city? The fact is, the free-market ideology and sickening cronyism that has guided policy and politics in the last few decades has failed a whole generation. Yet we have more talent, more goodwill and more energy to commit than ever.
Max Haiven is an assistant professor at the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design. His first book Crisis of Imagination, Crises of Power: Capitalism, Creativity and the Commons will be published in April by Fernwood Publishing.
This article appears in Feb 27 – Mar 5, 2014.
When does the revolution start?
Another part of the major problem is that the older generations arent retiring, because of lack of retirement savings, supporting “kids” and those who cannot afford to.
Wait till the housing bubble pops, will only compound the problem of debt.
While we’re on the topic of “radical suggestions”: split Halifax up into proper rural and urban regions so Hendsbee et al can pay for the infrastructure required for “rural growth” (more shitty cookie-cutter houses with plasterboard cabinets and balconies attached to siding) instead of us in the city. For fuck’s sake there are mines and farms in the Halifax Regional “Municipality” – shouldn’t that be a sign something’s gone horribly wrong?
– a young professional
AMAZING article!!!
Older generations aren’t retiring also because of Harper’s pension reforms. As of 2012, millions of Canadians must wait until age 67 to get Old Age Security. This used to be available to those age 65, and although 2 years doesn’t sound like much, it sure means a lot to someone like me who is 25 and can’t find a job in my field.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/politi…
Older generations won’t be retire because they’re in too much financial shit for having lifestyles they can’t fucking afford. Thankfully, I wasn’t one of them.
I retired at 59 and a 24 year old young lady was my replacement. I was overjoyed because that meant one less young person would leave this province.
Great article- I look forward to more of you in The Coast.
Wonderful ideas and a refreshing perspective. And, I would add, we need better funding and policies to support young individuals/couples experiencing infertility!
Reading this article reminded me of my pre-school son leafing through the Sears Christmas Wish Book: “I want that, and that, and that, and that.”
Claptrap from the 1930s
My grandmother worked like a dog to be able to feed her kids during WW2– she failed and the state took her children away. In the 60s/70s my parents worked long hours in unstable jobs to pay apartment rent for 18 years while saving up a minimum downpayment for their house. I did exactly the same in the 90s– a lot of humbling short term jobs at less than $7.50/hr to pay rent; plenty of times I stared at my last $5 bill and carefully considered how to spend it. It’s bad now– it really is– and I sympathize, but it’s not worse being in your 20s and 30s now than it was for previous generations. There’s a lot of myth building in how we raise children in school and on TV– and at some point every young adult goes through the painful trauma of realizing that life is not at all what you were led to believe. If you’re a “thirty-something” and you’re still looking for your “elders” to start your co-op housing projects and fight for your union jobs, and “stand up for you”… you better get on it yourself. The way you were most let down by the previous generation was in teaching you that someone older would still be taking care of you into your middle age.
In a globalized world, perhaps we in the West just need to drastic lower our expectations. We will live poorer and die younger than our parents. It is our lot in life.
Well yes. But how do we get those things?
That was quite a manifesto. Looks like the revolution is coming. I better build my bomb shelter now.
Wait. People like this don’t have to wherewithal to to actually mobilize a revolution. Probably waiting for the government to do it for him.
Never mind. I’ll go back to making a good life for myself.
I was with him until he said raise minimum wage and build more public housing. Those will do nothing except continue the cycle of poverty, except a few more people will have a place to live, a small step in the right direction but nowhere near a be-all-end-all solution. A maximum wage on paper seems like a great idea until you realize it will likely be set at $10,000/hr by those who control such things. I do like the idea of more co-op housing there isn’t nearly enough of that here.
Is this article a joke? Why do you think you should be so entitled?? As your ‘elder’ (20 years older)- my generation had all the same challenges and somehow we managed to survive. I went to college and paid back by loan with no handouts. If the rent was high, we got a roommate or took an extra job. You expect free tuition, free childcare, free transportation etc..grow up. You made your choices in life, now make it work. GROW UP. Universal maximum wage?? An end to unpaid internships?? Get your head out of the clouds, and stop expecting mommy to pick up your dirty socks. This article is an embarassment to your generation…and you’re teaching them??? You reap what you sow—so go sow.
when i wanted to get into radio back in the 80’s i offered to work for free. and did so, 2 hours each night from midnight til 2am. and while i did that unpaid internship, i supported myself as a cleaner and cook. i worked for an artist with 3 kids who let their little dog shit all over the house. part of my duties to pick it up.
when i decided to buy a place, i rented a 300 sq foot room, parked my car and walked to work. no coffee, no internet, no entertainment for 2 years to save up the down payment for a starter place. no granite, no stainless, just filthy carpets and cockroaches behind the fridge.
this is what generations have done, not everyone, there have always been the silver spoons, but it is the human condition to learn strength through adversity and self reliance.
don’t expect to bypass it or you will be throwing away a very valuable experience. as a generation, you will become lazy brats. when you see a 60 year old with a car, a home, taking vacations, good furniture it is ridiculous to think they got that at 20. 0r 30 or even 40.
work. save. do without. and like the wealthy barber says ‘pay yourself first’.
“Most of us are deeply in debt, an odious obligation incurred when we purchased the university credentials we thought would lead us to middle-class jobs.”
I think this is one of the major problem for young professionals. They go to university/college with their focus solely set on getting a degree and not on the opportunities that the degree will give them. The job market may well be a hard fought ever-changing ‘war zone’, but that means you need to show up to battle with the weapons that give you the best chance to survive. $40K can give you an arsenal of weapons or a pre-cooked grenade depending on the choices you make regarding your degree. All too often people don’t realize this until it blows up in their face.
The first two grafs accurately diagnose a major problem facing young and youngish people in Canada today. But then the rest of the piece dissolves into a bunch of Marxist blather, like building loads more subsidized housing. Look, the government has to enact smart housing policy to keep developers on track and ensure continued housing affordability, but the answer to housing expenses is not to make the government everyone’s landlord. THE REVOLUTION(S) FAILED, MY FRIEND. New ideas, please.
As an aside: Please, enough condo-demonizing–what a ridiculous strawman. They’re not even for rich people. (Rich people buy houses.)
What you need is everybody to give you free everything!? Nice dream.
So funny, but it was as bad, but prob worse in the mid 90’s.
Everyone I knew graduated university and could not find jobs. All were working at bars, or the mall, gas station if they were lucky .
Imagine walking into a bank branch and they wouldn’t even give you an application because they had a hiring freeze on. Yes that true.
You know what we did? Moved. Sorry, but you are not special. Imagine 100 new engineers graduate today…you think that magically 100 new local engineering jobs appear!?
What IS needed is more coordination among provinces & the private sector to better understand & communicate the actual jobs that are projected, and where those jobs are projected to be…and the skills / education needed…then communicated down through the education system starting in high school or earlier.
Then you wouldn’t be shocked when you graduate with a degree in X and there are no jobs for you…because you were told to expect just that.
Thats what I wish I had.
Comments demonstrate a lot of bitterness. One of the worst things that has happened over the last few decades is the horrible student loan debt. Education is an investment, not an expense, and should be treated as such. If young graduates were not burdened by student loan debt for the first ten to twenty years of their (often low income) careers all of us would be much better off. And the real “crap” is telling people how poverty and other hardship is good for them. Of course no one is entitled to fantastic jobs and so on without working towards that goal. But this is one of the wealthiest countries on the planet and our young people sbould be entitled to have hope.
one of the wealthiest countries in the world means universal health care, free education for the first 12 years, paved roads, street lighting, hospitals, transit.
compared to poor countries where dead and bloated corpses lie in alleys.
poverty and hardship are highly subjective. for a young person to live in a basement flat, walk to work or school while they save up for a car or a condo is not poverty or hardship. it is not hardship to not be able to go to the DR for a two week spring break. it is not poverty or hardship if one has any kind of internet service at all, 200 channels on tv, or a tv itself, or a phone, or running water, heat, furniture, warm clothing. ‘doing without’ is not poverty or hardship or cause for self pity. ‘doing without’ is a conscious choice to forgo short term gain (that new phone, $5 coffees, a vacation, new clothes) for long term benefits, like your own property, paid off debt, a car.
The spoils of the industrial revolution have run out, and the current generation of young people are now paying for it. That fact is average income for young adults is lower than it was 20 years ago, while the price of everything has gone up. The Globe and Mail did the math in its wealth gap feature in late 2013. Compounded with far fewer full-time jobs and weaker-than-ever unions, we are painted a bleak picture. Yet this doesn’t stop the boomers and Gen X from labelling Gen Yers as lazy and entitled…The truth is, they were the ones with all the entitlements and hand outs.
I think I missed out on my handout. Where and when can I pick it up?
To all who are saying things were the same when “they” were young, keep in mind that the purchasing power of the dollar is substantially less than it was “then”. The dollar’s purchasing power, in real-world terms, has dropped by 85% since 1971: (source) http://canadanewslibre.files.wordpress.com…
So when you were easily paying off those student loans, and saving up for a house while working a couple of low-wage jobs, remember that every dollar you earned went much further than it does now.
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In order for the 25-30 youth to “get on with it ” at least in today’s Nova Scotian society you must move away to greener pastures, it’s that simple….. for those that can. For those stuck in Nova Scotia’s sinking middle class ready yourself for one of the worst places in Canada with regards to it’s gainful employment opportunities and overtaxed citizens. Although I agree with the premise of the article that there is really nothing here except for those already raised in clannish “circles of trust’ . I disagree that youth should stay on in the province . The best reaction to the power clique is to leave , and vote with your feet.. Look at the oversupply of teachers. What else is there for them to do?
Meanwhile, any real engines of growth are in shambles . The Christmas tree and blueberry industry as examples are now coming to fruition again with a falling cdn dollar, but all is lost in comparison to 10 years ago. I doubt many youth could adjust to such a life ,but the economics and sustainability of that industry is unquestionable . Where was the long term planning in this ? Ahh yes , better to make a quick buck off of “young professionals ” that ultimately become lackeys for the rulling class. Their social wage and profitability as consumers will reflect this as you stated.
The decline of the province for all,… with the exception of those who are given familial ties / nepotism and an upbringing sheltered from all of the true hazards of Nova scotian society…is a reality that is hard to look at but necessary to prepare for our future. Grim.
The writer of this article, from his photo, obviously is not old enough to remember what it was like looking for work in the 80s or even 90s. It was not any better then than it is now. I had to work for 29 years before I was able to buy my first house last year at the age of 48. The world does not owe you, me or anyone else a living. No one is forcing anyone to take an unpaid internship or any other job that doesn’t pay enough. If no one applied for unpaid internships or offered to work for free, employers would have to pay. As long as someone volunteers to work for free, employers will be willing to accept free work and you have no one to blame for that but yourself. A chart showing a ripped dollar bill with a red line going through it from a site called DollarDaze.org is hardly convincing that the purchasing power of the dollar has declined by 85% since 1971. Sure things were cheaper in 71 but most people only made about 1/10th (or less) of what they are making today. My father was making about $5,000 a year teaching in 1971. He is still teaching and making 15 times that now. Minimum wage was about $5 an hour 20 years ago. It has doubled since then. My income has nearly quadrupled in the last 20 years. Yes, house prices, cars and just about everything else was cheaper 20 years ago but it wasn’t 4 times cheaper and the prime interest rate in 1997 was 8.25%. Sales tax in NS was over 18% because we had the GST on top of PST at that time. When I leased my first new car in 1996, the interest rate was 8.9%. Almost every car manufacturer now has 0% interest for long term financing. I never dreamed that interest rates would be as low as they are now, let alone 0%. Suck it up and stop whining about not getting everything for free.